I have been going to Mandarin Cove with my family for a very long time, and the service has always been great. The dishes are delicious and the servers are very accommodating. Some dishes we always order are the kung pao chicken, sizzling rice soup, and Mongolian beef. Although we have our ""go-to"" dishes, whenever we have tried something new, it has always been wonderful. They offer free parking to their customers above the restaurant, and it is right off Portland's waterfront - highly recommended!
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YUMMY!!!!!!! I love that place. the service is so fast, the soup is amazing, and everything was so yummy! They even have free parking which is even better! I would really recommend the Mandarin scallops.
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The service was fast. I loved the soup. It was our first time there and they made a very good impression. There was free parking if you went after 5ish. The Mandarin Scallops were awesome and so was their orange chicken.
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My husband and I live in Maryland but when we are in Portland we never miss Mandarin Cove! We just love love this place! Not just the atmosphere but the food is amazing! We especially love 'Jentai Prawn', what an incredible taste. Their 'Mandarin Scallops' are to die for. We also tried their 'Mongolian Beef 'and it was so tasty we wanted to take some home with us if we could. But what we really enjoy the most whenever we are there is their 'Sizzling Rice Soup'. I don't know why but their Sizzling Rice Soup is like no other. We have been to so many Chinese Restaurants and by far Mandarin Cove's Sizzling Rice Soup is the best we have ever had! Not even in the east coast can we find such soup with so much flavor and texture! This place is #1 by far, food, service and of-course $$ ( great price) also.Which is why we always visit Mandarin Cove whenever we are out there. My only complain is that we don't have this restaurant in Maryland and would love to ask the owner to maybe opening one up here in the east coast so everyone can have this wonderful dining experience! Thank you Mandarin Cove! We love you!! From, Julie & Chris Your #1 fan from Maryland! We""ll be back!!\r
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P.S. Make sure you don't miss the ultimate dessert - fried ice cream, Its out of this world!!\r
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I'm glad to have stopped by here for our last night in downtown Portland! Our friends took us here for a nice dinner. They could not stop talking about their Sizzling Soup, Mandarin Scallops and Three Flavor Taster!!! I wanted to see what the hype was about! Everything was so perfect and delicious and this was one of the best soup that I have ever tasted! Moreover, it's their commitment to ""NO MSG"" which will permanently keep them from ever being authentic. Next time I go back here, I will make the same order for sure, and maybe try their Roasted Peking Duck cos it's one of my favorite Chinese dishes as well.
The service was pretty quick too. We got our food within 10 minutes which was short with the amount of people seating inside (The house was full that night).
Great food, Great prices, A Big plus for their No MSG dine in or take out and FREE Parking offer !!Don't forget to Validate, FREE parking is good for Dinner (after 5) [Always a nice Surprise in Portland area]
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I've had lunch from the Mandarin Cove a few times and the food was a good value, if unremarkable. We recently went there for dinner and was pleasantly surprised by the food we had.
The restaurant has a relaxed atmosphere and our server was very attentive. I had the sizzling rice soup, Mandarin scallops and kung pao chicken.
The sizzling rice soup had an exciting presentation with the hot, browned rice added to the soup at the table creating a sizzling sound and inviting smell. The broth had a very light chicken flavor which seemed too insubstantial at first but turned out to be perfect for presenting the flavors of the seafood and rice without getting in the way.
The kung pao chicken had a solid but not overpowering spiciness and not overly greasy as is too often the case with this dish.
The highlight though was the Mandarin scallops which were lightly breaded with a spicy, tangy sauce. This is one of the best scallop dishes I've ever had. The scallops were huge and would just melt in your mouth. I'll defiantly be back for this one.
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I have eaten at a lot of great Chinese places in Asia. But I always come back to Mandarin Cove. It's that good and very consistent.
After the dinner, I asked the waiter, ""hey, do you have recommendation for dessert? I would like to try something different this time""
Waiter: Oh, our Deep Fried Ice Cream is the best dessert in town. This is our signature dessert as well.
ME: Really? I have never tried it before, let's do this, I will have an order of deep fried ice cream. (Thinking: How could ice cream be deep fried? I don't quite believe it, I looked at the menu, one order of deep fried ice cream is only a $2.95, why not give it a try)
This Deep Fried Ice Cream Has a very unique taste and texture. I LOVE it SO MUCH!!! It was a scoop of cold, smooth vanilla ice cream inside that is quickly deep fried creating a warm, crispy shell around the ice cream. I couldn't know the ingredient of the cream shell (in their secret recipe probably) but it was very delicious anyway.
I will definitely come back again for this!!! GREAT food, GREAT service, GREAT Environment and Reasonable Price, what more could I ask for!!!!
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At first glance, this restaurant seems ok. The vibe wasn't bad. They seated my family in the back all by ourselves, so it was quiet. the place was tidy and clean, the service was good.. The first bad sign was the menu.. it listed almost no vegetables in the dishes.. but who knows, maybe they do put them in there.. So we placed an order for several dishes. Less than five minutes later, all six dishes showed up. We all sat with mouths agape - how could any place possibly prepare 6 different dishes in 5 minutes? My hope dwindled.. we feasted on six dishes of mediocre, bland tasting, oily plates of pork, chicken, and shrimp. Some were tolerable, but none were decent. The sweet and sour pork was the worst i've ever had. The dishes were around $11 each, which for chinese food isn't cheap. I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone. I've had better chinese food from the safeway deli.
Pros: Short wait time, clean
Cons: Terrible food, poor quality for the price
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Great Food; Great Service!!
Lunch or dinner; it's a great place to dine.
Headed for an event such as at nearby Civic Auditorium?
If you're running late let them know. They do their best to cater to event-goers. They'll speed it up if at all possible.
Parking?? Not a problem. There's free parking in the adjacent parking structure. You can even leave your car there while you go to the event after dining.
Pros: Great Food; Great Service
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I took my girlfriend there before we went to go see the play Wicked. She had Sweet and Sour Pork and I had Cashew Chicken. We decided to share the two between us and the waiter was really nice about it. Our dinner was great and so was the service. It was a great precursor to the evening we had later! Great Job you Guys!
Pros: Best Chinese food in town
Cons: Parking can be problematic
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Our party of nine elected the recommended large party option at $12.95/person this evening. I thought this was quite a good deal and we definitely got our money's worth in quantity (we took home about half of every dish). We got hot tea to drink and our water glasses were conscientiously refilled. For starters we had a large bowl of egg drop soup, a large bowl of hot and sour soup, and a large plate with vegetarian spring rolls, pot-stickers, and shrimp puffs. For our entrees we received a large bowl of rice, and large plates of sweet and sour pork, orange chicken, chow mein, green beans, shrimp, beef with vegetables (I don't have the menu in front of me so I'm a little vague on the exact names). All of the food was classic americanized, oversauced Chinese. If you like this style, you'll love this place. The service was a little spotty but not terrible. However, if you've ever had authentic Chinese food, this place will not make you happy. Lots of oil, lots of sauce. The shrimp dish was the best, the sweet and sour pork next. The green beans were not overcooked. But all was depressingly standard American Chinese - too much sugar, too much oil, too many carbs. No dish allowed the underlying ingredients to come through. None had the right mixture of spicing (for instance, the hot and sour soup was actually bland). The good news is the children found the food edible. The bad news is the adults found it all over sauced and under spiced. No subtle flavors here. Since we ordered the standard fare, perhaps we deserved to get the standard fare. But I won't go there again.
Pros: Professional, clean, spacious, fast, good value
Cons: Over sauced and overly sweet food
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I read the post for July 22, 2008 and had to respond. The service and quality of the food is absolutely superb and in fact, my wife and I are headed over to have some great food now! We always get a couple of extra take home items so that we can enjoy the wonderful food at home too. We know our Chines food and all I can say is this is our favorite resturaunt, and we have dined all across the country!
Pros: Quality, parking, friendly service
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This dining experience at Mandarin Cove was horrible. The food took an hour to cook and when we finally got the order everything was cold. The wontons were bland and tasteless and obviously from a freezer. \r
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To be frank my Beef with Snow Peas smelled distinctly of urine and tasted like it was cooked in vinegar. I wish I was simply overreacting but both my girlfriend and roommate noticed the same qualities. My Girlfriends order of Sweet and Sour Chicken turned out to be pork, and tasted ?candied? not sweet and sour at all. \r
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I don?t mean to write a review filled with pis$ and vinegar but at 11$ an entree I shouldn?t have to mean literally.
Pros: Lovely hardwood countertops. quick server attention
Cons: Extremely slow cooking times. Bad tasting food. Obscenely expensive for 'cart food'.
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I don't know if it is the best Chinese in town, but I tried it on a whim one night and was impressed by the portion size, price, speediness, and of course the taste. If you're on the West side looking for Chinese I would definitely go there.
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My spouse and I have eaten at Mandarin Cove for years and still haven't had everything on the menu. The lunch menu is a great buy for a reasonable price, and dinner is excellent and still reasonable. I particularly enjoy the Peking Duck, which is served Taiwan style with buns rather than pancakes (though you could request it either way) -- made me glad to be organized enough to order 24 hours in advance. Before the opera we always park upstairs and eat here, such a deal! (Reservations a good idea.)
Pros: Beautiful setting, delicious food.
Cons: Daytime parking can be a problem if First & Jefferson Smart Park is full.
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My family and I have been going here for years. We have had family dinners, conventions dinners, engagement dinners, girls night out, an date nights here. We love it. The staff at this restaurant are wonderful, and the food is great as well. I have never had bad service here, and will highly recommend this place to anyone looking for great Chinese food and great service. To give you an example of exceptional service, I?ll tell you about this weekend. I was planning a group dinner for 15 people and needed a place to have it, I called up the restaurant and spoke with George. He was so helpful, he had menu ideas, offered to fax them to me, and suggestions on how we could get our party to the restaurant on time so that we could have dinner there, before they closed. He suggested that we pre-order our food , and was willing to work with me, as far as timing our dinner with the restaurant closing time. The thing that stood out to me, was the willingness of the restaurant to work with me. Now that?s what I call great customer service. I was so impressed with his willingness to help, that even though we ended up canceling our reservation due to our event ending, late, I felt that the help, and friendly service that I received from this restaurant was worth the mention. I have several group events planned for this year. I intend to return for all of those to the mandarin cove. We love George!
Pros: the staff, the food, the service
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I eat here for lunch every week and never have had a bad meal. They have awesome hot and sour soup, I have never found any better. All entrees are great, but my favorite is the Kungpao Shrimp or Chicken. Lunch is very reasonably priced, dinner is a bit more of course. Try it, you'll love it.
Pros: Excellent Food
Cons: Boss seems a bit rude.
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